One by One, One after Another
by kirastrations
Summary: The five times Kaito Momota failed his classmates. And the one time he didn't


**I - Heaven**

Kaito drags one hand through his hair in frustration.

When times are darkest, that's when a hero is born. A hero comes to be a spark, setting a fire in hearts that have become tinder dry. A hero will lead, he'll sacrifice and he'll inspire; then the torch of bravery will passed on to the next in line. They arise to wield the power of love and shun the love of power, they come to show us what we all are inside, heroes waiting to be reborn. The heroes that were born to show others that they are worthy of birthright, worthy of the love that rises under a gentle embrace of wings.

And for as long as he can remember, Kaito Momota, self-proclaimed 'Luminary of the Stars', had wanted to be a hero. A hero fighting for the greater good.

A cape rippling mockingly in the faces of those fallen before him, narrowed mauve eyes that scream for acceptance justice, and, most importantly, charisma. Kaito would be the first to tell anyone that charisma is important, and silently urge his sidekick - whoever was lucky enough to stand in the position at the time, to follow in his lead. After all, if a hero can't lead, are they really a hero...?

Kaito is certain that he fulfils all of the credentials of heroism. Of course! He wouldn't have been planted on this earth if he wasn't capable of something as simple as leading.

... Or maybe he just needs practice.

His other hand's grip on the AV room door slackens - it clearly has no plans on budging any time soon (thanks for that, Gonta). Kaito's eyes squeeze closed as various panicked voices bounce around the Game Room, melding together with the ear-splitting tune blasting out of the monitor.

"Hey," Kaito's eyes snap open again as a gentler voice just about reaches his ears over all the noise.

"I'm—" Rantaro pulls a face as the music goes up a few decibels, cups a hand over his mouth and steps closer to the spaceman. "I'm gonna take a little breather, that alright with you?"

"What?" Kaito frowns. "But what about the meet—"

"Listen," The amnesiac splays a jewelled palm against the coloured door. "I get that you mean well, but this—" His green eyes flit back to the chaotic scene before the pair. "This isn't working out."

"Hold on," Kaito says, "I know we haven't made much progress yet, but," He slams his fists together and forces a grin. "I'm sure we just gotta talk it out some more! We're bound to come up with something sooner or later—"

"You really think it's gonna be that simple?" The rest of Kaito's words die in his throat as Rantaro's eyes fly into him like a spear, normally green, gentle eyes clouding over with something Kaito can only describe as _sinister._ But it was gone as soon as it had come, and like a lightswitch, Rantaro had snapped back to normal.

"Sorry, I—" He runs a hand through fluffy green locks. "Nevermind. Forget it." He leans back against the AV door next to Kaito. "I just don't think this is going to get us anywhere." He says with a sigh, watching through half-lidded eyes as Angie continues to preach to the other three girls in the room.. "Besides," He chuckles, "I'm still not quite sure why you picked _me_ of all people, y'know?" He shrugs. "I think Shuichi would have been a much better choice than a guy who can't even remember his own talent."

"Dude, that doesn't matter." Kaito grumbles. "You just have that kinda determined aura about you, I guess?" Kaito's lip twitches. "Besides I've always thought you were kinda cool, ever since I saw you—"

...

...

...

A memory drops out of Kaito's grasp, a singular leaf from a tree fluttering just beyond the spaceman's reach.

"Ever since you saw me what?" Rantaro tilts his head, pierced brow quirking skywards.

"I—" Kaito grimances, scratching his head. "...don't know where I was going with that," he confesses, "My bad."

"Right..." Rantaro watches him fumble over his words a little longer, before straightening himself up, and heading towards the exit. "Anyway, I'm just gonna run to the bathroom."

"Hey—" Kaito reaches out to Rantaro, but the boy walks out of his reach far too fast.

"Don't worry." Rantaro soothes with a wave of his hand. "I'll be right back, alright?"

The door gently shuts behind him.

Rantaro was gone.

Kaito finds his corpse fifteen minutes later.

"I'll be right back, I promise!" Kaede cheerfully assures him as she runs off to the girl's bathroom with Tsumugi. He doesn't dare ask why.

"I'll... be right back..." Kaito mumbles, rushing to the boy's bathroom to cough up what felt like more blood than what came out of Kaede's crushed form.

* * *

**II - Star**

Kaito drags a racket behind him as he treads across the tennis court floor.

Ryoma sighs. "You brought me up here to play tennis." It comes out as a statement rather than a question.

"No— well," Kaito's fingers curl around the racket's shaft. He turns to face the smaller man, cape jacket fanning out behind him. "Ryoma, I—" He crouches down to his level. "I want you to look me in the eye, and tell me head-on that you really don't want anything to do with tennis anymore."

"I know what you're tryna do, Momota." Ryoma quirks an eyebrow, eyes briefly flickering to the racket in Kaito's hand. "And it ain't gonna work. I swore after that day that I'd never touch a tennis racket again." He turns his back to him. "I threw my past away, and along with it, my talent, you already know that much."

"Yeah? Well," Kaito throws the racket down onto the floor, a bubble of frustration expands and pops in his chest. He glares at it as clatters to a standstill. "I still don't believe you."

Ryoma shrugs. "Believe what you want— it's only the truth."

"But it's not actually the truth, is it?" Triumph shoots through the astronaut as Ryoma stops in his tracks.

"Excuse me?" Ryoma spins back around. "You... think I'm lyin' to you?"

"Is it really the truth, or is that just something you've forced yourself to believe?" Kaito's hand flies to his neck. "Cuz, for someone who supposedly 'threw away his past', you spend most of your damn time here tellin' us about it."

"Momota," Ryoma starts, "I'm not—"

"No," Kaito counters, "No. If you really threw away your past, you wouldn't be actin' like this. You would've moved on by now. Right now, you're carryin' your past with you everywhere you go. Day in, day out, you just constantly constantly _constantly_ torture yourself with it, and you won't let anyone in, won't let anyone understand why. All we get is 'don't bother with me, I'm dangerous, I'm a liability'. If you were really done with the past, you wouldn't be constantly tellin' us to stay away from you!"

Kaito's expression softens. "We're all here for you, Ryoma. All you gotta do let us in." He stretches out his legs out on the court floor. "We're in a killing game, for god's sake - you really think we care about somethin' you did years ago?"

Silence slumps between the two men.

Ryoma silently walks to the exit, and Kaito feels defeat fill his aching chest.

"Momota."

Kaito's head snaps up.

Ryoma grunts. "I've still got a ways to go, but I'll keep that in mind." He says with a hint of hesitancy, and the door clicks shut.

Ryoma was gone.

Kaito finds his remains the following morning.

* * *

**III - Angel**

Kaito drags a finger down the length of the glass in front of him, painting his fingertip a sickly shade of vermillion.

He leers into the mirror of the boy's bathroom, embellished with blotches of clotted red, and glares at the figure peering back at him through the misted glass.

The face of a goddamn coward stares back at him. A coward who can't stomach the mere concept of the occult. A coward who can't show weakness in front of his friends. The mirror ripples, and he sees the faces of his sidekicks training without him. _He can't let them down. He can't let them see him like this. He can't-_

"HOLD IT, DEGENERATE!"

As Kaito leaves the washroom, he nearly keels back over as a sharp hand digs into the back of his neck. Bloody bile rumbles in the pit of his stomach. Tenko relaxes her stance as Kaito steadies himself against the wall.

"It's just me." Kaito hears himself rasp, and winces at how tired, how small, how _weak_ it comes out sounding.

"Did—" Tenko furrows her brow as Kaito straightens his back. She stares at him, though not with the usual look of absolute disgust Kaito's grown so accustomed to. "Did... Tenko hit you too hard?" Kaito swears he sees genuine concern flash across her features.

"Nah." Kaito forces a chuckle and wipes the corner of his mouth with the back of his fist, taking care to conceal the red. "I'm fine, just had to go to the bathroom, nothin' out of the ordinary." A smile forces its way onto his face and he pumps his fists. "It'd take more than that to hurt the Luminary of the Stars!"

"Ah," Tenko's eye twitches. "Is that so...?" Her eyes flit to the stairs leading to the 2nd floor. "Non-council members aren't supposed to be out at nighttime, you know."

"The hell?" Kaito frowns. "Since when was that a thing?"

"Since," Tenko pauses, "Since this afternoon, Tenko thinks."

Kaito groans, lifting a weary hand to his neck "Can't you make an exception for a guy like m—" The words dissipate in his bloodstained throat as Tenko's expression contorts into one of... disgust, he thinks.

"Oh, what are ya doing Tenko?" Angie appears out of nowhere, siddles between them and gives Kaito a look that makes him want to wilt.

Much to the astronauts surprise (and confoundment), Tenko immediately opens her mouth and a waterfall of fiction pours from her lips, Angie lapping up every word, not unlike a little puppy.

Kaito's eyes glaze over, and his mind wanders elsewhere. It crawls out of his ear, saunters back out to the courtyard, and proceeds to cheer Shuichi and Maki-Roll on in their training in his steed.

The training he's too weak to do by himself.

"Angie sees." She idly twirls a paintbrush, "Well, if Kaito wasn't feeling well, Angie guesses that can't be helped." She beams at the taller man. "Atua forgives you, Kaito! Don't worry!"

"Huh?" Kaito's eyebrows fly into his hair. "Who the hell said I was—"

"Quiet, degenerate!" Tenko snaps at him, then turns to Angie. "So, Tenko will take Kaito back to his room to rest, and then she'll patrol the rest of the school, Angie."

With more optimism than Kaito deems necessary, Angie bids them both goodnight and with a twirl on her heel, she's bouncing back up the stairs from which she came, wispy-white pigtails flying out behind her and catching the artificial lighting. For a brief moment, Kaito sees two shooting stars fly out behind her.

Angie was gone.

"Tenko doesn't know why you're out so late," Tenko starts as soon as the artist's out of sight. "But she suggests that you go and rest before you strain yourself any more."

"W-wait a sec." Kaito pinches the bridge of his nose. "How— I mean, why the hell do you think I'm sick?"

Tenko's stiff expression falters. "Tenko..." She takes a few steps back, "Tenko... can tell a lot about a person when she..." She mimics the move used on him when she'd initially bumped into him.

"Huh." Kaito's eyebrows knit themselves into a scowl. "You can tell just from that?"

"Well," Tenko titters. "Aikido is not about competing for fun to see each other's strengths and weaknesses. By working together and using techniques that make full use of your mind, body, and breath... ...you can measure your physical and mental growth. That is the true purpose of Aikido. You do not compete for superiority in Aikido. In fact, in Aikido you do not compete at all. Aikido is not a martial art for inflicting harm, but a way to improve yourself!" She falls back into her Aikido stance.

"Furthermore, Kaito!" She jabs a finger at him. "Tenko definitely suggests that you take frequent breaks! And... and..." She averts her eyes. "Maybe don't... hide your feeling so much anymore..."

Kaito's mouth drops open, but before he can even formulate a response, Tenko is already halfway down the hall, and out in the courtyard.

Kaito moves to follow her, but his throat screams at him again, and he's pulled back into the bathroom against his will.

The sound of the door swinging shut is drowned out by manic, wet coughing.

He stumbles in on Angie's body the next day.

* * *

**IV - Child**

Kaito drags himself to the far-side of the Research Lab. Seeing effigies of hyper-realistic dead people wasn't something that was quelling his uneasiness of the fourth floor's general atmosphere.

"How are you feeling?" Tenko whispers to him, when everyone is busy either investigating or mourning the loss of their leader.

"Yeah," he says, "A little better." He pulls a face as his eyes flit to Angie's corpse. "Friggin' blood isn't helping though."

"Don't be rude." Tenko scowls at him. " But Tenko... might be able to help with that later."

"What?" Kaito blinks at her. "Seriously?"

Tenko wrings her hands. "Well, Tenko isn't entirely sure, but..." she grimaces. "Tenko's worried about you."

"What?" Kaito snorts in disbelief "You, worried about me? Please, I'll believe it when I see it."

"Shut up, degenerate! It's not like that, Tenko's just—"

She's cut off as Korekiyo calls for her to join him at the séance room.

Tenko gingerly obliges, and the anthropologist pulls the art room door shut after them.

Tenko was gone.

A second body discovery announcement rings out not even ten minutes later.

* * *

**V - Rabbit**

Kaito drags a chair across the computer room floor.

"This enough— enough chairs?" He asks with a splutter, harshly swallowing back the coughs snapping angrily in his throat.

"Should be." Miu collapses in the chair across from him and sighs loudly. "Fuckin' hell, that took _forever_..."

Kaito mirrors her actions, and relief immediately washes over his form like a sponge to a canvas. "You still haven't told me what these are for though, y'know."

"Keh!" A smirk works it's way across the inventor's lips, and she tosses her hair over her shoulder. "In just a few hours time, we're headin' off to a New World, Space-Face."

"A new world?" Kaito's gaze drops to the headset placed in front of him.

"Yeah," Miu's eyes glisten with deviltry, "A world with no Monokuma, none of his dumb-ass kids, none of that shit," She kicks her legs up and out onto the coffee table. "All you gotta do is follow my lead, do as I say, and we'll be free from this place in no time!"

"Uh—" Kaito politely averts his gaze from what he's now able to see from just under Miu's propped up legs. "So," He turns the headset around in his hands. "This some kinda virtual reality or something?"

"Well, duh." Miu rolls her eyes. "Can't fucking invent teleportation with the shitty tools they gave me here," When she doesn't get an immediate response from the astronaut, Miu practically explodes out of the chair.

"What, is that not fucking good enough for you?" She stomps over to Kaito's seat and snatches the headset from his grasp.

"Huh?" Kaito blinks at her. "No, that's not what I—"

"Well, I don't give two _shits_ what you think!" Miu snaps, face crimson with fury. "I've spent fucking _hours_ fixin' this thing so it's safe for us to dick around in, and you're saying it's not fucking good enough? This is the thanks I get for putting my blood, sweat nd' tears into fiddlin' with this fucking thing!? GOD, why do I even fucking bother with—"

"I DIDN'T SAY THAT!" Kaito yells back at her, shooting up and out of his chair. Miu scrambles back to her seat, not unlike a frightened kitten.

"I just fucking asked a question." Kaito inhales through his nose. "No need to be so insecure about it, Jesus."

"I-I'm nnot inse-secure, I j-just want to—" she snivels and in a smaller voice that not even Kaito hears, "... fucking escape..."

"What?" Kaito's forehead puckers, and a sigh escapes him. "Whatever, listen, I—" Nervous fingers run through heavily gelled hair. "I'm sure whatever you—" His eyes flicker to the looming computer, "—are planning on doing with us, the others will appreciate it, no doubt about it."

"R-really?" Miu peeks out from between her gloved fingers. "Y-you think so?"

"Hell yeah!" Kaito slams his fists together. "I haven't been in a simulation in years, so I'm super excited to try it out!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold the fuck up." Miu stops him. "You've... been in one of these things before?"

"Yeah," Kaito slumps back down in his seat. "We do 'em a lot for exams for astronaut training, since you can't exactly fly out to space any time we want." Sadly.

"O-oh." Miu twirls a lock of strawberry blonde around one finger. "S-so you like, know how they... work then?"

"Hmm?" Kaito cocks an eyebrow. "Not really, I've just used 'em before, but I wouldn't know what makes 'em tick or anything like you probably do."

"Good."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, just wanted to—" Miu pulls a face and gestures to the entrance. "Fuck. Okay, well your job is fuckin' done here, Space-Face."

"I thought we're going to the New Worl—"

"SOON!" Miu bellows at him. "Gotta prep some more shit before that. Plus I've got _him_ comin' later on, so I gotta make sure I—"

"Him?" Kaito tilts his head. "Who's— hey!" He doesn't get to finish his sentence as he's forcefully yanked out of his chair.

"Your private session with this Gorgeous Girl Genius is over, dickcheese." She sneers, dragging him to the exit. "Though don't get too down in the dumps; I'll come give you a second helping of my beautiful brain later on when we're ready to head off. Oh and—"

Kaito turns back to face her.

"Thanks for... helping me c-carry the chairs up." She doesn't meet his eyes.

"That's all?" Kaito's lip twitches. "Moving chairs is nothing for the Luminary of the Stars!" He grins at her. "I'll even help you carry them back once we get out of that world."

"H-huh...?" Miu visibly stiffens. "Oh, r-right. So, I'll, uh, see you later then." She stutters, taking a wobbly steps back into the Computer Room, letting the automatic doors to slide themselves shut.

Miu was gone.

Kaito momentarily wonders why she suddenly got so nervy, but whittles it down to her... eccentric personality.

Six hours later, Kaito finds out he'd been framed for murder.

* * *

**VI - King**

Kaito drags a dying boy's body across the floor of the hangar, painting the path from bathroom to press a hue that he knows all too well.

But for once, it's not his blood.

For once, it's not his body he's dragging around the place.

Kaito tries his hardest not to stare at the blood-crusted arrow piercing Kokichi's spine as the Supreme Leader shakily steadies himself against the bottom of the stairs, skinny legs trembling, no doubt from the toxic substance rushing through his veins.

Kaito moves to wrap an arm around the smaller boy's waist as they prepare to climb what seemed like a mountain. Kokichi flinches at the sudden touch of a large, calloused _warm _hand. He's freezing. _He's freezing._ No, Kaito thinks, as they begin their ascent, he's _dying. _

Kokichi sidles out of his hold once they're at their destination, practically stumbling into the control panel. The arrows in his back and side bounce up and down like metallic springs, and Kaito's stomach curdles like lemon and milk at the gruesome sight.

Kokichi stands at the control panel, clumsily fiddling with the digital camera, eyes bleary, skin a sickly white. Kaito can't fathom the amount of absolute _agony_ the smaller boy must be in, and he can't understand how he's... still standing.

Reading his mind, Kokichi glances up from his tinkering. A weak smile dangles from one corner of his mouth. "I'm— I'm fine." He rasps, and Kaito's chest twists with an emotion he can't quite place a finger on. Is this what it feels like to be grieve someone? Kaito doesn't know. _He doesn't know._

"We need to start," Kokichi says, bringing Kaito back out of his thoughts. "Before I—" His face contorts into one of pain, and suddenly, Kokichi's on the floor.

"Kokichi!" Kaito rushes to his side, head throbbing. Lungs screaming. Heart _aching_.

"Shit..." Kokichi whimpers. "Not yet... not until—" His eyes clamp shut.

"You..." Kaito's mouth tightens into a straight line. "You're okay." He soothes, though the words are entirely hollow. He runs a hair through Kokichi's thin, sweaty black locks. "You've got this." he quietly says, the smaller boy clings to his jacket as he's re-positioned at his station. "You're okay."

"Go..." Kokichi murmurs, lidded eyes crinkling with what Kaito assumes to be pain, "We need to get this done." His eyes flit to the astronaut's. "I d-don't want m-my death to be for... for nothing."

"Kokichi..."

"Seriously—" Kokichi snarls and splutters on his words, and Kaito has to physically restrain himself from rushing back over. "If I... die... before our plan... I'm gon... c'me back and... haunt... you..."

...

Kaito very, very, _very _hesitantly proceeds back down the stairs, each step shaky, and more careful than the last. And yet... Kaito's eyes trail back over his tiny, paling frame as Kokichi slides the camera into place with absolute precision. And yet, he watches Kokichi stand tall at the controls, knuckles turning sheet-white as he grips the metal railing.

_And yet, _even when smiling in the face of death, Kokichi Ouma looks like a leader.

Kaito spreads his beloved jacket across the metal slab, grimacing as the glistening galaxy-print winks back at him, almost mockingly.

So much for the Luminary of the _Stars_, right?

Kaito swallows the blood (or was it bile this time? Maybe a mixture of both?) clambering up his trachea as he awkwardly shuffles under looming shadow of the press. He clenches every muscle in his body, curling in as small and as tightly as possible, muttering a silent prayer to that one god he never believed in.

"Kokichi?" Kaito calls out after a few minutes of silence. His voice echoes around the room. His chest tightens, and he starts to wonder if Kokichi had actually dropped dead up there. That... definitely wouldn't be good.

"Yeah," A tiny voice says back. Kaito only just barely hears it. "I'm... gonna... s-start it... now."

"A-all right." Kaito's eyes flutter closed, and he internally curses the tremor in his voice. A deafening screech reverberates around the hangar, and Kaito's eyes instinctively shoot back open. It's loud, so much louder than Kaito had expected, but his whizzing mind drowns out the sound. He feels the press shudder below him as the sandwiching slab slowly begins it's descent upon him. On the outside, Kaito's deathly silent, but on the inside, he's howling.

He can't help but compare the events of the night with his own state of mind. Just like the arrows, the poison, this whole goddamn plan, his insides are in absolute dissarray. A mess. Both physically and metaphorically. For a split second, he wonders why he hasn't yet considered the prospect of Kokichi tricking him into going under the press. Then he remembers the gaunt, pale, poisoned, ghostly visage of what he'd once considered a pest, a villain, a mastermind, a thorn in his side, and guilt twists around his gut.

Kaito finally exhales when he hears the press screech to a halt just above him, breath fogging up the metal that just about grazes his nose. He stays there, paralyzed, waiting for Kokichi's signal to switch over, but it doesn't come.

_It doesn't come._

Heart hammering in his ribcage and fearing the worst, Kaito shimmies out from under the press, ever careful so as to to not disrupt the carefully positioned jacket - if even one wrinkle is different he _knows_ Shuichi will see it. He'll see it, and he'll scrutinise it to no end. _He's just that amazing. _Kaito's smile quickly dissipates as his eyes snap over to the control panel. "Kokichi...?"

Kokichi's not there.

_Kokichi's not there. _

Kaito's eyes dart around the hangar in a panic when clattering resounds from just off to the left. Kaito sees the tail end of Kokichi tumbling back down the stairs, landing flat on his back. All of the pain comes back to Kokichi in a choked, strangled squall.

"Kokichi!"

In an instant, Kaito's in hero mode, and on shaky legs, dashes to Kokichi's side. The smaller boy writhes in pain, as Maki's arrow digs further into his spine, reopening the clotted wound.

"Kokichi, can you hear me?" Kaito sits him upright on the bottom step. Kokichi doesn't answer. He merely sways, dazed, staring at the bloodied floor through glassy eyes.

"Koki—"

_"Get it out."_

"Huh?"

"It... hurts..." Kokichi mumbles, wincing as another spike of pain shoots down his spine. "Get... it... out..."

Kaito pulls his mouth into a straight line, eyeing the protruding object with newfound anxiety brewing in his chest. He gently, gently, _oh so_ _gently_, closes his hands around the shaft.

"I'm gonna pull on five." Kaito says. He feels Kokichi tense up in his hold, but manages to make out a nod from him.

_One_

_Two_

_Three_

_Four_

_..._

_Five_

Kokichi intakes a sharp breath through clenched teeth as Kaito yanks the arrow out, begrudgingly tossing it aside. He'll deal with it later.

"Hey, Kokichi." Kaito gags a little as the little hole punched clean into Kokichi's spine sparkles back to life with fresh blood. "Kokichi," he repeats himself, "you alright, dude?"

"Do the other one," Kokichi breaths out, and in a smaller voice, "_please_."

Kaito moves to oblige, but hesitates. "You'll lose more blood if I pull—"

He's cut short as Kokichi's hand flies to his own shoulder and with a muffled cry, the arrow is ripped from the smaller boy's bony limb. Kokichi's bleary eyes crinkle in agony as he collapses off the step and straight down into Kaito's chest.

"Kokichi! Hey, Kokichi, Kokichi!" Kaito pulls him up onto his lap. "You can't be friggin' dying on me now, man, we've still gotta—"

**"SHUT UP!"**

Kokichi rubs his bleeding lip with a sleeve. "It's... it's f-fine." He sighs. "It doesn't matter if I lose more blood," he growls through gritted teeth, "I'm gonna end up dying anyway, aren't I?" He inhales a shuddering breath, sweat droplets forming on skin as cold and as white as snow.

Death definitely wasn't beautiful, nor was it as blissfully peaceful as he'd probably once fantasised it to be, his stomach doing somersaults around the Strike-Nine eating away at his insides, shredding away at what little of his _pathetic_ life remained.

Kokichi wills his tired, tired, _tired_ eyes open, and lavender eyes meet mauve again. Kaito feels a pang of guilt hit him for the nth time when his eyes briefly flicker to Kokichi's cheek, still dusted with a tint of blue from when he struck him a couple days prior.

"I... I have...have to... to go to the... the pr... y-you know..." Kokichi trails off, not able to bring himself to say the word.

"R-right." Kaito swallows a lump in his throat, and gathers the smaller boy up into his arms, and stands up.

Kokichi's eyes go round. "What are you—"

"Shut up." Kaito doesn't take his eyes off the metallic machine. "Just— just let me do this for you, at least." Kokichi's purpling lips screw into a weak frown, but he doesn't argue back. Kaito just assumes that it's the poison preventing him from doing so.

"D-do... do you th-think... M-Maki w-would be... be j-jealous of me right n-ow?"

"Don't make it weird."

"Y-you're th-the one... w-who's c-carry-ing me like a... a bride... y'know."

"Sh-shut up. Don't talk if it's hurting."

"Neheh..."

The walk to the press is not unlike a funeral procession. Both boys know that they're going to be crushed. One physically, like an art assignment gone horrifically wrong. The other mentally, for the rest of his life. If he gets one.

In Kaito's arms, Kokichi begins to quiver, and Kaito's breath hitches.

"Hey," Kaito's surprised at how soft his voice comes out sounding. "You alright?" He lowers the leader down in front of the press.

Kokichi doesn't let go.

"T-two seconds," he rasps, "Gimme a s-sec to... to..."

"O-of course, take your time." Kaito stays still, as though he were lying back under the death machine looming a mere few feet away.

Silence falls through the hangar.

"H-hey..."

"You okay?"

"Well... I-I'm... ab-about... t-to d-die, idiot."

"Right, sorry..."

More silence.

"Are you, uh, scared...?" Kaito immediately regrets asking such a selfish _selfish _question to the boy he's about to murder_._

Kokichi makes a small noise into Kaito's shirt. "It's... g-gonna be... be i-instant... so n-not rea-ll-y." He titters unconvincingly. "I think f-alli-ng on... on... on... her a-rrow... sped th-ings u-up a litt-le..." His eyes flutter closed. "At l-least, I-I h-ope... it does..." Kaito observes him, searching his closed eyes for answers to all the lies he'll never admit to, all the questions Kaito has for him.

Kokichi's freezing.

Kokichi's still.

Kokichi's dead.

Kokichi's... dead...?

...

...

...

Kaito exhales. He's gone. He's at peace. Finally. _He's at peace. _Kaito moves to lift his body up onto the metal slab, to end this, to just_ end this once and for all, _whenKokichisprings back up with a pained shriek. Kaito, quietly curses that god he doesn't believe in for continuing to make this poor kid _suffer so goddamn much-_

"I... d-don't w... anna d-die... like thi-s" Kokichi croaks, curling little bony fingers around the astronaut's shirt.

The world turns into a bleary blur, as do all the sounds. The taste. The smell. Everything's gone. Kaito tries his hardest to hold back the strange feelings rumbling at his core, but he can't. He pulls the sniffling boy in closer, a foreign feeling of protectiveness filling his guilt-ridden chest. A feeling he thought he only possessed for his sidekicks. A lone tear trails the astronaut's cheek, and just like that, the floodgates open wide, wide, _wide_.

Kokichi starts to cry.

He cries as though his brain is being torn into from the inside-out. Emotional pain flows out of both gaping wounds. From his mouth came a cry from so raw that even the eyes of the strangers around us were suddenly wet with tears. In an instant, he whole world vanishes from both of them - they're not Ultimates, they're not the hero and villain of their stories, they're not Killing Game fanboys. Just two weary souls that the world wants **gone**.

Eventually, silence blankets the hanger again.

But this time, Kokichi doesn't wake up.

When times are darkest, that's when a hero is born. A hero comes to be a spark, setting a fire in hearts that have become tinder dry. A hero will lead, he'll sacrifice and he'll inspire; then the torch of bravery will passed on to the next in line. They arise to wield the power of love and shun the love of power, they come to show us what we all are inside, heroes waiting to be reborn. The heroes that were born to show others that they are worthy of birthright, worthy of the love that rises under a gentle embrace of wings.

And for as long as he can remember, Kaito Momota, self-proclaimed 'Luminary of the Stars', had wanted to be a hero. A hero fighting for the greater good.

A hero fighting for a chance to beat the Mastermind.

A hero fighting for the sake of everyone else.

A hero fighting for a feeling much too strong to just ignore.

A hero fighting to commit a sacrifice that'll no doubt, end in tears.

_A hero fighting for all sixteen of us_, Kaito thinks to himself, knowing deep down that the end was nearing. Not once in his life had he ever felt so alone, so lost... So incapable of doing even such a minuscule thing as pushing two little buttons.

And this was only the beginning, the beginning of the pain, the beginning of the suffering and the beginning of the endless constellations of emotions that were in store for the the astronaut.

He clenches his teeth. Squeezes his eyes closed. And does just as he'd been instructed to.

_I'm so fucking sorry._

The press slams shut.

Kokichi is gone.

And half a day later, Kaito is, too.

* * *

**END**


End file.
